Release Date: February 12th 2025. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD
Icarus Burns - Track Listing:
1.Minotaur 07:12
2.Die Werft
3.Melancholia
4.A Distant Light / In The Darkness
5.Tränen Der Sonne
6.100 Days
Members
Tim Corden – Guitar
Jens Gehrke – Guitar
Axel Kalteiß – Bass
Cristobal Cuadra Bravo – Drums
Review
Icarus Burns self-titled debut album is a stirring mix of Post-Rock, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, Psych and Ambient Metal held with a cold hearted Progressive Metal energy which allows the band to play a multitude of different styles of Instrumental Rock/Metal. With influences ranging from REZN, King Buffalo, ROTOR, Elder, Mastodon and Pelican, the band stand on their own creative merits from the very start of the pulsating beats of the excellent opening track of Minotaur.
The band may play a simplistic style of Heavy Psych at the start but the band start moving into heavier areas of Sludge/Stoner Metal with a precise delivery of melodic Post-Rock and Ambient passages which can be quite sinister when the OCCULT soundclip comes out of nowhere. Icarus Burns add an ever more Post-Metallic flavour to their music with the sound being quite diverse and with a slight apocalyptic melody appearing in the mellow parts of the track. That’s a clever way for Icarus Burns to deliver a gloomier and doomed out sound which pulls no punches with its more adult oriented groove that starts to dominate musical proceedings.
Second track Die Werft offers a calmer style of music with sonic passages reminiscent of ELDER, KING BUFFALO and early-era PELICAN. The music does have a loose creative structure with Icarus Burns playing with a progressive “STOP/START” focus that allows the thunderous rhythm section to play a heavier sludgier and psychedelic swagger. The band never rests on their creative laurels and are always trying new exciting things to keep the album wonderfully fresh and downright aggressive at times and DIe Werft is the perfect example of this.
Third track Melancholia opens with a calm Post-Rock narrative which feels very “AQUATIC” at times before the heavier soundscapes and landscapes transforms into a heavier destructive musical force with that cool Heavy Psychedelic energy being the main key for Icarus Burns to manifest into a different band altogether. The sound is always forward thinking and the thuggish Atmospheric Sludge grooves feels like it’s being delivered by a different band at times. This is one of the standout tracks on the record with Icarus Burns playing different styles of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal with varying levels of heaviness along the way. Though, there’s a beautiful Ambient Rock section in the middle that is one of the most beautifully played pieces of music I’ve heard in quite some time.
The second half of the album sees Icarus Burns go even further down the Progressive Metal rabbit hole with first rate instrumental passages becoming more Doom obsessive especially on tracks such as A Distant Light / In The Darkness, Tränen Der Sonne and 100 Days being my other favourite tracks on the album. I could have easily done a track-by-track analysis of these tracks but I want the listener to be surprised by what they hear by the whole record and I don’t want to spoil the surprise with Icarus Burns delivering even more intense and absolutely thrilling moments of Heavy Psychedelic grooves that offer an adventurous and cinematic feeling you’ll find very hard to beat.
Icarus Burns are possibly going to cause a major stir within the underground scene and I expect these guys to perhaps become one of the breakout stars for folks to go absolutely crazy for. We’ve seen this happen before and you get this feeling when listening to the album that the band are destined for bigger and better things sooner rather than later.
This maybe their debut album but Icarus Burns have delivered a future classic in the making and perhaps the instrumental rock/metal album I’ll be comparing all future instrumental albums against for the rest of this year. Bring it on….
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Icarus Burns for the promo.
Icarus Burns self-titled debut album will be available to buy on CD/DD from Wednesday 12th February 2025.
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